


this fury’s burning inside your chest (it steals the air out from your breath)

by NullLit



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, As in Team 7 is pissed the hell off, Author stopped watching Naruto after the Tsunade retrieval arc, BAMF Dai-nana-han | Team 7 (Naruto), Deadpool!Sakura, Families of Choice, Graphic Description of Corpses, Graphic Descriptions of Torture, I Can't Believe I Wrote This, Not A Fix-It, Tags Are Hard, Team as Family, The Author Regrets Everything, The Author Regrets Nothing, Uzushiogakure | Hidden Eddy Village, What Have I Done, You read that right. - Freeform, and the solution is fire, but like, just throw canon out the window, more of a burn-it, no beta we die like men, thats going to reflect here, yeah - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-02
Updated: 2019-07-13
Packaged: 2020-06-02 15:39:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19444444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NullLit/pseuds/NullLit
Summary: Sakura Haruno is three when Orochimaru uses her as an experiment to find the key to immortality. She is just another one of the hopeless children stolen in the dead of night, another number in a book, another failure he thinks.Sakura Haruno is thirteen when she learns all men bleed, but only a lucky few die.(In which Sakura is...deadpool? And Orochimaru doesn't realize he’s fucked up until it's a little too late, and Hidan absolutely hates Sakura but maybe they could be immortal friends, and all three kids of team 7 are angry and have a vendetta.)





	1. Chapter One: Time

**Author's Note:**

> WARNING:  
> Graphic descriptions of a child being tortured.

Sakura goes to sleep in her pink room, wrapped up in pink blankets, wearing her favorite pink nightgown. Sakura is three and she’s safe and she’s happy and she’s _so_ smart. Too smart. There are monsters in the shadows looking for smart little kids like her, kids with potential. So she goes to sleep in her pink room after saying goodnight to her parents who are so gentle and sweet. Sakura is filled with warmth and she knows she's loved - she goes to sleep happy.

Sakura is stolen from her rose-tinted world, and she wakes up with blood in her mouth.

* * *

* * *

She’s not entirely sure how long she’s there, because when you’re underground there’s no real way to tell time. When she’d first woke up she was strapped to a freezing cold metal table, leather straps digging painfully into small wrists, a pale man leaning over her, ink black hair pooling down his shoulder as he stuck a needle into the small vein in her equally small arm. Everything hurts and little Sakura has never had anything more than a few scrapes and bruises before, so it's almost as if her young mind can't process what's actually happening as she whimpers in pain. 

Her favorite pink nightgown is covered in blood and ripped in some places, and Sakura is three but she’s pretty sure she’s dying. 

“Don’t cry, little one.” He whispers, smoothing back her fluffy pink hair even as she cries out, there’s a horrible burning pain spreading through her veins, burning little Sakura alive from the inside out, it feels like the time when she'd touched the stove top when her mommy was making tea, only on the inside instead of the outside. “If this works you’ll be my most treasured success, my most treasured possession.” He coo's, and Sakura is a toddler but she knows _evil_ when she sees it, and this man is as evil as they come, being close to him makes her absolutely sick, and so the child doesn't fight the darkness that slides into place in her vision. 

(Sakura hopes it's just a nightmare, and she'll wake up to her mommy and daddy to soothe her tears, but instead, she wakes up alone in a darkened cell, hungry and cold and so scared - this is the first night she prays.)

* * *

She’s not entirely sure how long she’s been there, because when you’re underground there’s no way to tell time, but she knows it's been a long time. The pain never stops, Sakura can’t tell day by night anymore, but she knows every time she sees the pale man she’s in hell. He tells her she has the potential to be great if only she’d corporate, which is funny because she doesn't know how exactly he wants her to do that when she’s strapped down and being tortured, but whatever. Her 'days' become somewhat of a routine, she wakes up, is dragged to the room where he splits her open and scrapes at her bones and sees how far he can go before her heart starts to give before putting her back together again with a smile. 

It takes a full six months for her to give up totally.  
  
The experiments never really get any better or any worse, he always injects her with a sickly looking green vile, always in the same spot, and then he goes through the process of seeing if she’ll die. There’s always a boy with grey hair there to heal her, though he looks really young too. Sakura wondered at first if he was stuck like her, but she realizes soon enough that the pale man is teaching the boy how to do what he’s doing. How to torture and put back together and torture and- she is very young, but she knows she's not okay. When she's in her cell she can still feel probing fingers in her chest cavity, the tugging in her stomach as he plays with her insides, phantom wounds that are healed and gone but still _there_.  
  
Sakura lays in her cell alone more often than not, meals slid through a hole in the door, usually, it was just bread and water, but sometimes if He was happy with how the experiments went there would be a sweet on her tray. There’s no bed, just an old ratty blanket she lays on at night, stained with blood.  
  
Sakura never stopped praying, even when her eyes lost their spark and her screams became more hollow, she isn’t really sure who she prays to. Her mommy had never made her pray before, but she prays and prays and prays because she _does not want to die please don’t let her die she’d suffer forever if it meant she could live-_

(She doesn’t think anyone hears her prayers, but a God as Ancient as the earth hears and thinks - _I haven’t meddled enough in so long, what is one life? What is one answered prayer?)_

Everything changes because she prays, and yet nothing changes at all. 

* * *

Sakura Haruno is four and she’s dying.

It takes a full six months for her to give up - Sakura doesn’t know how long it’s been but Orochimaru does when he wishes her happy birthday as he pulls apart a flap of the skin on her collarbone and drags a nail across the exposed bone.  
  
(But has she really given up? She hasn’t stopped praying, so maybe she hasn't given up, but everything is so numb until the freshness of this pain washes over her.)  
  
The nightgown she’d been taken in is smaller than it should be, disgusting as it is, she’s grown despite being malnourished and tortured and healed and tortured and healed and- she's grown, she may even be really tall one day, if Sakura lives, but she doesn't think she will. She knows he’s going to kill her, actually, he tells her just as much as he injects the same liquid into her veins. Sakura is terrified of dying, of him being the last thing she ever sees. She’s terrified and he _laughs_ and something inside her shatters like glass.  
  
Sakura Haruno is four when she dies, cut open, rib cage pulled apart, lungs so injured she dies coughing up mouthfuls of blood and in so much pain but she dies hating this pale man with every fiber of her body.  
  
The Third Hokage walks in on Orochimaru leaning over a boy with brown hair and big round eyes- a different experiment. Sakura’s dead body had been discarded within her cell an hour ago. The old man knows his precious student is too far gone to save, but he is too soft to kill him, so Orochimaru gets away thinking his failed experiment is dead.  
  
ANBU find Sakura alive in her cell ten minutes later, covered in blood, a scar running from her chest to her belly button, she doesn't remember dying, or what ever happened to lead to it. Though what she doesn’t know isn’t all that important yet, she knows that she’s _saved,_ but she also knows the village is partly responsible for what happened. Her heart is filled with rage not just for that pale man.  
  
They take her home and everything changes.  
  
(But not really.)

* * *

* * *

Naruto Uzumaki is five and he’s in hell.

He's starving, literally. The old man had stopped by earlier that day and given him an envelope for 'this month's expenses' and told the _child_ not to 'waste it' before leaving without another word and really, who just handed a five-year-old some money and fucked off to go do whatever? What a shitty leader. Naruto doesn't like him, never has and never will, why anyone would follow that old bastard is beyond him. 

“-uch a monster, did you hear what he did to that little girl?” A woman was speaking to a merchant as the child edged into the shop, intent to buy some instant ramen because he was _five_ and it was the easiest thing for him to cook. The man behind the counter leaned in with interest, ignoring the chime of the door for a moment, “Tortured her! For an entire year, the poor thing will never be the same.” The woman was saying, looking horribly sad as the man’s eyes finally slid toward Naruto. 

The reaction was instant. 

“Speaking of _monsters_.” He sneers, stomps towards the cowering child, each step an echoing thunder of doom in poor Naruto's little ears. The gruff man snatched him by the scruff of his neck in a bruising grip and threw him out the back with enough force to send the blond flying into the alleyway wall. 

Naruto _wailed_ in pain as a _snap_ resounded in the enclosed space, but the man just turned around and slammed the door without so much as blinking. 

It takes a long time for the little boy to pick himself up from the cold ground and begin to walk home, stomach empty and rumbling, arm twisted at an awkward angle, pain shooting up his neck with every step as tears dribble down his face. Most people ignore him, others spit at him. He feels very alone in a village full of people, and as he curls up on his bed, broken and lopsided, he closes his eyes and can feel hate take root in his heart. Within the seal on Naruto's stomach, a beast stirs, and makes a decision.

Naruto wakes up in the morning with his arm healed and his teeth sharper than they were before. This changes everything. 

(But not really.) 

* * *

* * *

Sasuke Uchiha is six and he’s unbelievably smart.

Actually, he’s probably too smart for his own good if you ask any of the village Elders that plot in the dark. He knows his family home like the back of his hand, knows all of the best hiding spots, which floorboards make noise, and most of all he knows his _family_. 

Sasuke knows them so well and this means he can tell when something _shifts_ , the peace he grew up in giving way to something darker as he watches the clan compound fill more and more with his clansmen, as he watches it fill more and more with bitterness. Children are not ignorant to the whispers in the dark, Uchiha children even less so than others, so when he’s sneaking around late one night and hears his father’s gruff tones from behind a door, he can’t help pausing. 

“ _Coup d'etat-“_ Sasuke is smart, but it takes a week for him to figure out what these words mean, and another week to piece it together in a way his young brain can process properly.

(If Itachi realizes his sweet little brother is figuring out the secrets to his Clans sins he tells no one.)

The village doesn’t like his Clan, doesn’t like the Uchiha. That’s why the bakers that used to live in the civilian district closed down their shop had moved into the compound - Sasuke doesn’t understand why someone couldn’t like them though, their sweet rolls were amazing even if he hated sweets. Sasuke supposes he can't blame his dad for wanting to make the village like them again, and that a coup might be a good idea as long as no one gets hurt!

It happens a week later, the entire Clan culled in a single night. 

Sasuke looks at Itachi surrounded by the dead bodies of everyone he ever knew and loved - but he doesn’t cry - he understands more than he should, he understands _who_ made his brother do this, the brother that cried every time he had to kill on a mission, the brother that was always nothing but sweet to Sasuke, who helped their mother cook and clean, who silently looked after their fathers health even if the man seemed ungrateful. The younger Uchiha wakes up in the hospital, Itachi doesn’t use his Kekkei Genkai on Sasuke because he can’t bear to hurt his brother after hurting so many others, so Sasuke isn’t completely broken when he goes home to blood stains and emptiness.

Hatred burns in his heart, not for the brother that was given an impossible choice, but for the village that made him choose to begin with. 

This changes everything.

(No, really, it does.)

* * *

* * *

It goes something like this.

Naruto never gets a hobby of pranking, oh sure he’s loud, but only when he wants to pick a fight. He’s also _smart_ , too smart some people think, suspiciously smart they whisper. He’s smart enough to do decent in class and to match even Sasuke in spars. He’s smart enough to train and stick to the shadows and let the hate in his heart fester. He never thinks about becoming Hokage once. 

(Instead, he dreams of fire spreading through the village, a giant fox rising above, shrouded in moonlight)

In the end, he’s smart enough to realize no one _wants_ him to actually be smart. So he graduates dead last, listens to his white-haired teacher when the man gives him a scroll and asks him to take it to the woods, he reads it, learns a jutsu, Iruka tries to break through the walls Naruto put up- it only partly works.

* * *

Sasuke is as silent and brooding as ever, only around for classes and then he vanishes from the eyes of the public, going deep into his clans compound. 

He trains day and night and he doesn’t pick on Naruto, the Uchiha knows the other boy is _smart_ like him and he also knows the blond has _anger_ too. They aren’t friends, but they don’t hate each other. Sasuke isn't cold as ice either though, it's hard to be cold when you have liquid lava running through your veins, he does have an ambition this time - but it's so much bigger than it had ever been before.

He graduated top of his class, rookie of the year, Sasuke doesn’t want to kill his brother - he knew Itachi was a pacifist, any punishment he deserved was likely self-inflicted. 

(And if he dreams of killing the people responsible for killing a clan full of innocent souls no one is there in his empty compound to listen to him cry.)

* * *

Sakura isn’t a fangirl. Not in this one, she goes home a year after being kidnapped and tortured for over a year. She goes home with empty green eyes and limp pink hair, she goes home skin and bones and her parents will never understand the hollow rage that burns in her breastbone, so she doesn’t talk about it. She doesn't talk about the hollow aches and pains, the phantom wounds, the scraping she can feel against bones, the taste of her own blood in her mouth. Sakura doesn't talk about how she prayed - how she still prays now, even if she's not sure who hears it. (or who answered) She doesn't talk about any of it, but there's no mistaking the girl who once went to sleep in a pink room wrapped in a pink blanket in her favorite pink nightgown - that girl is dead and gone. 

Sakura has a decision to make, does she revert and allow what she suffered through to truly end or, or does she fight to not be so weak as to suffer at the hands of another ever again. The choice is easy, so she trains and trains and trains and trains until the memories aren’t the creeping shadows in her room at night, until her nightmares are more dream than horror. 

(And if she dreams of going to the man responsible for letting _Him_ become such a monster, of killing that man- well, she knows better than to tell anyone about that.)

Sakura isn’t a fan girl, she’s strong and smart enough to graduate second in her class, only best by Sasuke. 

(And if her bruises and scrapes heal faster than normal...well who's really paying attention to a civilian born to washout?) 

* * *

Team 7 unknowingly forms under one banner - revenge runs in their veins, anger taking up the spaces between their bones, the will of fire burns bright in their souls but the flame has twisted - they unite with one dream...To one day raze this village to the _ground._

(And they will- oh they will.) 

.

.

.

tsuzuku 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song - The Hate Inside feat. Sam Tinnesz


	2. Burn (with me)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bonding over childhood trauma is the only way they know how - so no harm no foul, right?

* * *

* * *

Sakura Haruno is thirteen when she graduates from the academy, shiny new headband clenched firmly in her fist but the desire to wear it is nonexistent. The insignia for her village is carved into the metal plate and privately she cannot wait for the day when she is able to carve her own line through that symbol. She doesn’t wear it on her head, she’s not a happy kunoichi of her village, she’s not proud of what monsters it’s produced (and let slither away) or of the things it’s swept under the rug. 

Sakura goes to the store directly after graduation and buys a whole new wardrobe with a plan in mind. 

Essentially, she’s bought the same outfit in bulk. Standard back Shinobi plants, black turtleneck long sleeve and sleeveless shirts, and charcoal grey vests that had extra pockets. The girl painstakingly sewed a mesh pocket into the inside of every vest, and when she was finished she cut the blue cloth from her headband and slid the metal into the pocket, the insignia visible but just barely. 

(She’d wear it for now, and open the vest to show anyone if they asked, but when her dream became reality she’d watch the plate of metal burn with everything else.)

* * *

* * *

Naruto Uzumaki is twelve going on thirteen when he graduates- well, not really. He doesn’t think he earned the headband, not in the way he should have, but after that whole fiasco they’d given him the symbol of the village anyway. Funny, the village had never wanted him before, but now that they could make a weapon out of them they do. He knows there was never a choice, the old man had never asked him if he wanted to be a civilian, Naruto had just been shoved into the Academy.

The boy stared at the headband for a long time, sitting on the roof of his house. There’s a lot to think about, to plot for, but he’s only just now graduated and has so much further to go, in a way the old man was doing him a favor by shoving him into the academy- if he hadn’t Naruto would just be another bitter civilian. He doesn’t want to wear the headband, to tie himself to the village that never wanted him to begin with, but he understands it’s a stepping stone. He won’t wear it with pride though- no. The blond ties it loosely around his neck, let’s the metal plate hide in the high collar of his orange jacket. 

(Someday he’ll be strong enough to break this tie, to rip the metal to shreds. Someday.)

* * *

* * *

Sasuke Uchiha is thirteen almost fourteen when he graduates, and bitterness mixed with the empty feeling in his chest when he receives his Hitai-ate. _My parents should have been here._ The boy thinks angrily, glaring at Iruka as he snatches the stupid thing away from the man - who looks at the Uchiha with pity. 

That expression makes Sasuke want to vomit. 

He goes home with rigid shoulders, he goes home to bloodstains and silence and can’t bring himself to wear the symbol of the village the tore apart his clan and left the ashes to scatter in the wind. He can’t - so he won’t. Not until he has a reason to.

(Not until he’s left the village to scatter like ashes in the wind.)

* * *

  
"-eam seven will be Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, and Naruto Uzumaki.”  
  
The class fills with murmurs, mostly from disappointed fangirls who wanted to be on Sasuke’s team, a few of them shooting wistful looks at Sakura and even Naruto. 

Sasuke is sitting in the back towards the window, black eyes seemingly bored as he looks out the window. Naruto sits two rows directly down from him, bright blue eyes shut and his head pillowed in his arms, faking sleep. Sakura sits four rows in front of Naruto, right in the front, bright green eyes also on the window directly beside her, though she twitches at the mention of her name - all three of the newest members of Team 7 say absolutely nothing. They say nothing as other teams slowly trickle out of the room, they say nothing until it’s just the three of them, and then Sakura stands up and turns to look at the two boys. There’s something to say of the fact that they’d been to the academy together for years and barely knew each other...however…

“Your eyes are the same.” She says simply, hands sliding into her pockets, the sign of a nervous tick. Black and blue eyes blinked in confusion respectively, it’s evident in their gaze that they both think she’s stupid. “So are mine,” Sakura adds with a shrug. 

There’s a long, drawn-out pause that settles in the air between them all, her words a puzzle meant to be either solved or discarded. Surprisingly, it’s Naruto who gets it first. 

“You mean-” The blond starts loudly, frowns, and then looks up at Sasuke who levels both of them with a cool stare. It’s familiar, they’ve seen it on the Uchiha’s face for years, and in the mirror at night when hate licks at their insides like a raging inferno. Sasuke blinks slowly again, recognition spilling into his gaze and then nods slowly. It seems he’s solved the puzzle too.  
  
“Who?” He asks slowly, not even posing the full question because he knows they’ll understand, and they do. The other two shift restlessly, knowing this is a soul-baring question, with risky answers. Could they really trust each other enough to reveal something so potentially dangerous? Naruto thinks _yes_ , and maybe that changes everything. 

“I- The whole...tree.” He’s half turned in his seat, azure gaze flickering uneasily between the two of them. A breeze shifts through the open window, tugging on their clothes, pushing their hair into their eyes. A choice is made, and a God above hums in anticipation.  
  
“The Shadow that is _supposed_ to protect the tree,” Sakura speaks calmly, green eyes flashing greener, bright and sickly and _vile-_ Sasuke swallows hard, pretends to ignore how Naruto’s own eyes flicker red, how their words resound in his head and in his chest. They all make a choice, and maybe that’s what really changes everything. Uchiha Sasuke sucks in a sharp breath, digs his nails into the palms of his hands, and extends an olive branch. 

“Sometimes…” He starts, refusing to look at either of them. “Sometimes tree’s get old branches...and those branches need to be cut away so the rest of the tree can thrive.” He looks back up then, meets their green and blue gazes respectively, and feels a little less alone in this cruel world. An understanding passes through the three of them like the breeze that blows in through the window and-  
  
“Bonding over gardening tips?” A tall man asks from the doorway.  
  
Team 7 jolts as one, hackles rising as they turn tensely toward the door, the man hums low in his throat, and snaps an orange book shut, stuffing it away in his hip pouch. “Meet me on the roof, you have oh...thirty seconds.” And then he vanishes.  
  
There’s no poof of smoke, no scatter of leaves, not even a shift in the air. The grey-haired man is simply there one second and gone the next. The kids look at each other for exactly five seconds in silent astonishment, and then they move as one, scrambling out of the classroom and bolting up towards the roof. 

* * *

“How are you late if you left before us?” Naruto snaps, kind of breathless from their mad dash to get here in time only to find the man didn’t arrive for at least another ten minutes. 

“I got lost.” He says cheerfully, which drags three flat looks from his cute little Genin. “Alright, let’s do some introductions!” He says just as cheerfully, ignoring their glares of disdain.

“Give me names, likes, dislikes, future goals- the works.” He orders, and while Naruto sucks in a breath to likely yell at the man, it’s actually Sasuke who beats him to it.  
  
“We don’t even know _who_ you are.” The Uchiha says with an acidic tone, hands deep in his pockets even as he sits down on the concrete steps that face the metal railing their teacher leans on. “Go first.” He snaps when there's a stunted silence. 

“Well, aren’t we cheerfully,” The Jounin mutters, and then- “I’m Hatake Kakashi, you can call me Sensei. I like…” Could he say porn in front of a bunch of kids? Probably not. “...dogs.” Kakashi nods once and gestures at Naruto. “Your turn!” He says brightly, which causes the blond to sputter because _you didn’t even give a full introduction, Sensei!_ But after a moment the younger boy seems to decide to just get it over with, so he slouches slightly and glares at the ground while he speaks.

“Uzumaki Naruto, I like ramen, I dislike…” The blond tilts his head innocently, giving the air that he can’t quite think of anything he would hate. Kakashi thinks his Genin are _very_ cute. 

(Naruto is thinking about murdering the man who spit on him yesterday.)  
  
“I guess I dislike the time it takes to cook ramen.” He says sheepishly, though Sasuke and Sakura seem to see through him easily and oddly enough, their postures seem to relax. “My dream for the future is to become the strongest in the whole village!” Naruto spreads his arms wide and grins carefree - Kakashi is lost in thoughts of his own Sensei so he kinda misses how blue eyes dim and darken.  
  
“Next! You in the middle.” The man waves distractedly at Sasuke, who frowns in turn, sighs in a long-suffering way and then answers while looking up towards the sky. _Very woe is me_. Kakashi thinks, smiling under his mask at the kid.  
  
“Uchiha Sasuke, I like...tomatoes. I dislike just about everything else.” He says flatly, and the girl beside him smothers a snort. “I don’t have a goal for a future, but an ambition that I will see to its end.” The Uchiha speaks solemnly, black eyes smoldering with a bone-deep rage. “I will revive my clan, and destroy the person responsible for their massacre.” He says, voice carefully void of all emotion.  
  
(Kakashi thinks they’re cute when they plot murder too, but he also thinks a lot of future problems may have been avoided if someone had shoved the kid into therapy instead of letting him turn his rage into a slow-cooked meal in a crockpot.)  
  
“Great! Next!” Kakashi laughs, ignoring how neither of the others looks bothered in the slightest at Sasuke’s dark answer. He supposed it makes sense, they’d been in the same class growing up- they were bound to know how crazy the last Uchiha potentially was. 

“I’m Haruno Sakura, I like training, I dislike-” Her breath stutters in her lungs, she can feel a phantom hand in her chest, nails scrapping on bones.  
  
(A flash of golden eyes, a cell room with no lights, blood so much blood and-)  
  
“...the dark, and snakes.” She says absentmindedly, scratching at the collar of her shirt, where the scar lays beneath. “My dreams...ah, I don’t have one.” She shrugs, green eyes boring into Kakashi’s visible grey eye.  
  
(He read her file, knows what she went through, and thinks maybe the kids aren’t OK, though if he’d gone through what she did he’d probably feel the same way, so whatever. They probably all should have been put in therapy, himself included.)  
  
“Well, you are a fun group of diverse individuals.” The man deadpans, letting grey hair flop over his eye. “Survival mission tomorrow morning at 5AM, training ground seven, bring all your gear.” He says just as brightly as he’d spoken before- and then promptly vanishes once more. They sit there for a long moment, silence dragging on, and then Sasuke stands and starts to make his way towards the stairs.  
  
Sakura thinks any understanding they’d come to earlier must have been gone, but then he turned around and raised one perfectly sculpted eyebrow at the two of them. “Well, are you coming or not?” The boy asks, hands still in his pockets, and the other two members of Team 7 scramble up and run after him.  
  
(It’s only until much later that Kakashi realizes not a single one of them had visibly wore their headbands, and it’s not until much, _much_ later that he realizes what this really means.)

* * *

* * *

Sasuke leads the pair silently through the village, past the civilian district both Naruto and Sakura lived in, past the bright Uzushio district that still housed refugees, and right into the clan district. They pass just about every clan compound there is as they journey deeper and deeper into the district, they pass compounds until they run out of compounds to pass, and eventually come to the closed-off gates of the Uchiha. 

The gates are large and wooden, stained a deep, dark shade of amber, and there are half visible seals that run up the large cement pillars on either side of the gate. It wasn't common knowledge that the Uchiha had been so well versed in the art of Fūinjutsu, but unlike those from Uzushiogakure, they mainly focused on defensive and protective sealing techniques. These particular seals were meant to make the Gatekeeper aware of any intruders.  
  
(Sasuke supposes the Gatekeeper was the first Uchiha to die _that_ night, so they couldn’t raise the alarm - this also meant the duty falls onto Sasuke. The Compound knows he’s the last loyal to its walls, even if he doesn't actually live here but instead in a half-empty apartment. He can feel the chakra of those who formed the seals covering the compound walls sing at his proximity - the surge of what remains of his parent's chakra washing over him. _It feels too much like a welcome home._ )

“Give me your hands.” He orders abruptly, after pushing open one of the gates far enough that the three of them could squeeze through if they turn sideways. Sakura and Naruto stare at him as if he suddenly spit acid and told them to go die, which is kind of funny. His ears definitely don't take on a soft pink hue when they finally take his hands, his excuse is that this is the easiest way to get them passed the seals for now.  
  
(Okay, and maybe he’s a little touch starved? So what.)  
  
Sasuke pulls them through the gate slowly, noting the flare of chakra that dances across his skin - he can _feel_ them inside the walls, their foreign chakra registering with the seals that protect and preserve the compound in its entirety. This means houses are still standing even if moss and weeds thrive around them.  
  
(This also means the blood stains are still very much there and everywhere - Sasuke takes care to avoid stepping on them or even looking at them and notes the others do the same.)  
  
He leads them silently to the main house at the edge of the compound, it’s the biggest of all the houses, looking regal even with its gardens overgrown and running rampant. 

* * *

* * *

Naruto isn’t really sure why Sasuke is leading them here, but he knows what happened here- remembers the whispers, and sees the blood with his own two eyes. His stays silent out of respect, looking at the vacant buildings and feels the silence in his chest.  
  
It echoes, reminds him a lot of silence in his apartment at night. The dirt walkways are worn down from past use, but there’s no recent markings, no sign of life within these walls. The gate had snapped shut with a loud click after they'd passed through, Sasuke having kicked it closed. It’s only when they near the house the younger boy grew up in that Naruto looks at his tense shoulders, sees how black eyes dart from house to house, looking at ghosts only he can see.  
  
(This is a side he’s never shown anyone before, and the side he’s trusting them with and- and Naruto respects him for it, this is more than he could do at the moment, and that changes _everything_ .)  
  
Sasuke doesn’t let go of Naruto’s hand.

* * *

* * *

Sakura feels the scar on her chest itching with vigor, but she doesn’t want to draw attention to it so she bears the pain in silence. Sakura knew what this is, this compound is Sasuke’s _Hell_ , she has her own, and if she looks into Naruto’s eyes she is sure he does too. She thinks this is going to be a long day, because if Sasuke is willing to bare himself to them...then she is too. 

The compound is silent, the smell of rot heavy in the air despite the seals that keep the buildings standing strong. Screen doors are ripped at some houses, old blood turned brown with age, staining walls and porches and doorways. Sakura thinks it’s weird that no one was ever sent to try and actually clean up the stains, to fix the doors, wipe away the reminders of a clans complete and utter destruction. Sakura thinks she kind of understands the rage that burns in Sasuke’s eyes now.  
  
(Sakura wonders if anyone cleaned up _That Place_ after clearing it out, but figures they'd know soon enough.)  
  
She doesn’t let go of Sasuke’s hand.

* * *

Sasuke pretends to not draw comfort from the two hands that hold his own, Naruto’s soft and warm, Sakura’s surprisingly calloused and cool, comfortably firm in it’s returning grip. He leads them into his childhood home, none of them take off their shoes- the floors are covered in too much dust anyway. They go deep into the dark, abandoned house, everything left exactly as it had been the day the massacre happened. There were molding dishes in the sink, some dust-covered ones laid out to dry on a browning towel. The table is set for dinner, food that had been sitting in the many dishes all those years ago nothing more than discolored clumps now.  
  
They pass by Sasuke’s old room, toys spread across the floor, bed unmade, childish drawings scattered on a low table.  
  
They pass by Itachi’s room, perfectly clean, a photo of his family sitting idly on the bedside table. Some books stacked on the desk, dogeared as if Itachi was coming back any day now to finish reading them, a notebook Sasuke never bothered reading sits beside the books.  
  
They pass by his parents' room, larger than all the rest, well lived in too. There's two desks by two windows, one full of books similar to how Itachi had kept his own, two glass bottles of perfume sitting innocently beside a photo of two young girls, one with bright red hair and deep blue eyes, the other with inky black hair and eyes the same shade of coal as Sasuke’s. The other desk is perfectly organized in its clutter, stacks of paper sitting unmoved by each other, labeled too, though they couldn’t read the labels from just a passing glance. A professional Kanji set sits on the desk alongside sealing paper and scrolls.  
  
The last room they pass is the most heart-wrenching. Wall’s painted a soft pink - nearly the same shade as Sakura’s hair - there is a white changing table in the room, and a child’s cradle decorated with pretty iridescent butterflies.  
  
Sasuke avoids looking into any of the rooms as they pass them.  
  
(Naruto feels sick at the sight of a house so human and lived in being void of the life that seems to scream from every corner.  
  
Sakura is watching the fine line of Sasuke’s shoulder shake and feels something in her light on fire.)  
  
He leads them to a sitting room, letting go of their hands and pushing open the door with robotic motions. The low rising table in the center of the room is untouched, four sitting cushions surround it, and there's even more stacked in the side closet, along with an extended center for the table.  
  
The dust is thick in the air, and there's a large stain several paces in front of the door, right in front of the table. The old blood has sunk deep into the tatami mats, though there are signs that it’s been scrubbed at before, as useless as the desperate gesture had been. It had been too late by the time Sasuke returned from the hospital, it was likely even if he replaced the mats, the stain ran to the very center of the house's foundation.  
  
The boy waited for both his teammates to slowly enter, and then he shuts the door with a surge of his chakra. The walls around them light up in a bright flash of blue that lowers to a dull glowing hue after a moment, humming with old chakra as his own mingles into the surrounding seals. This had been his parent's meeting room, sealed so no one outside the doors could hear what was being said as long as the doors were shut and the seals activated. It was perfect for what they needed, and so he walked across the room, weaving around the stain on the floor, and sat on one of the dusty cushions. 

Naruto and Sakura followed with uncertainty, neither of them willing to break the silence that had fallen over them - silence seemed to suit this haunted house. 

“So,” Sasuke says, at last, his voice hoarse. “I guess I’ll start.”  
  
(And so, the Uchiha’s sins are laid to bare, and an orphan boy tells his teammates his plan to eliminate every single one of the Elders within the Hokages council, to eliminate every single person responsible for driving his pacifist brother to do the unthinkable.

It seems impossible, and yet Team 7's hatred for Konohagakure runs deeper than ever before.)

* * *

* * *

Sasuke waits with bated breath for them to respond, but both Naruto and Sakura are deadly silent, neither of them moving as dust drifts through the still air around them. The blond let out a deep breath, blowing a few dust motes high into the air, and looks at Sasuke with more maturity than he'd ever bothered to show in the academy. Still, no words are said, and the Uchiha begins to bristle. He'd just bore his soul to them, for all intents and purposes, and they couldn't even find the words to share their own experiences with him. He was so stupid, so _foolish_ to think he'd found two other people who could understand the hatred he felt and lived with.   
  
Startingly green eyes connected with Sasuke's stormy orbs, and his anger filled thoughts stuttered to a halt at the emotion that held strong in the girls gaze. It wasn't the pity so many others looked at him with, no, it was _rage_ that ran as deep as his own, and Sasuke jolts before he sharply snaps his head to the side to look at Naruto.   
  
Naruto, goofy, stupid, slow Naruto. The dead last who still managed to hold his own in spars, the moron who pretended to sleep through classes, who skipped more often than showed up because he was actually ridiculously smart. Naruto, who is _growling._ Sasuke isn't quite sure what to do with the storm of anger that rolls in the blond's blue eyes, eyes that flick flick flicker red. Sasuke isn't sure what to do about the darkening marks on his face in the already dim, shadowed room, or the atrocious chakra that seems to coil around the shorter boy. 

In a very un-Uchiha manner, Sasuke's mouth falls open ever so slightly, and he looks between his teammates who are _seething_ in anger, not at _him_ , but _for_ him _._   
  
(Something clicks in place for Sasuke, it feels an awful lot like _family_.)

* * *

* * *

Naruto is _pissed_.   
  
It's one thing for this cruel village to abandon him - he can understand, kind of. Naruto was actually a monster, he didn't deserve love or happiness, not with the thing he housed within himself. It made sense in some twisted way - not that he agreed with it, not that the logic behind it didn't make him want to tear this village to shreds. However, for them to do this to _Sasuke_. The boy all the teachers praised, all the students loved, to do this to an _entire clan._ How can they go from _hating_ the clan and shoving them into a box as far from the rest of the village as possible, to _mourning_ them and acting as if they'd never done anything wrong? How could the villagers act so innocent when they practically aided the Elders with their reasoning to cull an entire family who only wanted to be treated fairly, who never wanted the war that was being shoved onto them.   
  
It takes a long time for Naruto to find the words he needs, but when he finally does his voice is raw.   
  
"The entire village hates me..." The blond rubs at his eyes suddenly, long and hard until his chakra settles and until his eyes are faded back to sky blue. "Kind of...like they hated your clan." He says softly, and Sasuke sucks in a deep breath, looking as if he'd just been struck. "They kick me out of stores, shove me away if I walk to close, I've been beaten in the street before and...no one stopped to help, and it's all because...I have a the 9-tails sealed inside me, have ever since I was a kid." Naruto keeps his eyes fixed on the table in front of them, suddenly horrified that maybe his team will hate him just as much as everyone else does. He doesn't deserve the hopeful thought that he may have found a group that accepts him for...him, monster and all.   
  
"I hate them all, I hate this village, Sasuke if...if you'll let me, I'll help you-" A hand on his arm makes him flinch and stop his nervous speech spew, looking up abruptly at Sasuke, who has lunged across the table and has Naruto's jacket sleeve held in a vice grip.   
  
"Do you mean it?" The Uchiha asks harshly, breathing somewhat ragged. "You'll help? You- you feel the same-" He can't seem to get the words out, but Naruto reaches up, and curls his fingers around the boys pale wist. No further words are spoken, but an understanding seems to pass between the two and after a long moment Sasuke seems to sag against the table. 

* * *

* * *

Sakura listens to both boys speak about what they suffered through, and can feel nothing but anger anger anger anger _anger_ -

The stifling sensation wraps around her lungs, drags down her frantically beating heart. It sinks deeper than her own anger ever had. It's one thing for the Hokage to wrong her. She's just a civilians daughter, useless, cannon fodder. No potential at all-   
  
(That's wrong though because Orochimaru had looked at her and seen nothing but potential for the taking-)  
  
She was _nothing_ but these boys were _everything_. How could the village just discard them so easily? Naruto who is so strong and brave. Sasuke - his whole clan so noble and- they didn't deserve it. It was one thing for Hokage to not be able to protect his village from every threat, it was another thing entirely to not only raise threats but let them run as rampant as the weeds that grew outside, to let child live neglected and alone, and kill off an entire clan because he was essentially scared of the power they held.   
  
Something wet and warm slides down her chin and Sakura realizes with a jerk of sharp, clarifying pain, that she's bitten straight through her lip. Both boys jerk to look at her with wide eyes as she idly wipes away the blood, and they watch with morbid fascination as her skin slowly knits itself back together.   
  
"When I was four," She says slowly, eyes on their point of connection. "A man named Orochimaru kidnapped me from my bed, took me to an underground lab, and experimented on me for over a year." She speaks casually as both boys blanch at her words. Sakura swipes some dust off of her sleeve.   
  
"The Hokage was that man's teacher, he allowed him to do this - only stopping him when the evidence became too much for others to ignore, and even then he never truly stopped him." Her voice veers from casual to seeth at the drop of a dime. "I...he's still out there, and the Hokage let him _live_ -" Her breath rattles in her lungs, but she doesn't stop, she can't. "I hate _them._ "   
  
The rest of her words go unsaid, but the boys pull apart and Naruto reaches for one wrist while Sasuke reaches for the other. They stay this way for a long time, not really talking, but understanding flows through them as if they'd continued to speak for hours.   
  
(Three children - one goal. They're united by the drive of vengeance that runs deeper than any other emotion they've ever felt.   
  
This truly changes everything.)  
.

.

.

tsuzuku 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song for this chapter - Nothing More - Go To War
> 
> The quotes are supposed to be the way each of them writes, which is why the font is different if you caught that while reading you earned a cookie.
> 
> Thank you so much for all the positive feedback! Ya'll are absolutely amazing and your comments and kudos give me life. I hope everyone liked how I wrote the Uchiha compound (I figured Uzumaki couldn't really be the only Clan good at sealing with the Uchiha enjoy their privacy so much) and Sasuke house! I've seen a lot of fics where the author write it like the house is perfectly untouched in the sense that it doesn't feel lived in- which I don't totally like honestly. To me, it's more upsetting if you can see how the lives were really broken and disturbed, especially from the eyes of the last remaining family member. 
> 
> A few important things below-
> 
> 1\. The goal for this fic it to post a new chapter every Monday or sooner until I complete the story! There are supposed to be six chapters in total, varying on the larger side of what I usually write hopefully- on the note~
> 
> 2\. Because of how this is being written I have that to either - A. make it into a series. or B. add more chapters! Simply because the more I write for one chapter the more ideas I get for the overall fic. Unlike If I live, every single point of this fic isn't planned out, which leaves me so much wiggle room. 
> 
> So would y'all still be interested in this story if it ends up more long and drawn out than a short fic? Let me know in the comments below!


	3. T is for Trauma

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Konohagakure is known around the world for being 'kind'. 
> 
> It's a lie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BEFORE YOU READ!!!  
> CHAPTER WARNINGS: 
> 
> * Graphic descriptions of corpses.  
> * Graphic descriptions of torture.  
> * Self-victim blaming if you squint. 
> 
> YOUNGER READERS!! Please read with caution. If you cannot stomach gore stop reading after;
> 
> "There's a pause as the smell sweeps over them first, so much worse than it had been before, sickeningly sweet. Sasuke gags at the same time as Naruto turns around to vomit violently behind them into the water that sloshes against their ankles."
> 
> and continue after; 
> 
> "Sasuke vomited next."
> 
> You've been warned.

* * *

* * *

Sakura leads the boys out of the village.

The sun is high in the sky and Konohagakure is bustling with activity. It's the absolute prime time of the day, children being released from the Academy, civilians getting off of work from a shift change, or if they're employed at one of the few places that actually close in a Shinobi village - it's no secret Hidden Villages stay busy all hours of the day and night when the Ninja in question are brought into the equation.

They walk out with a crowd, easily passed over by the guards who figure they're just another set of Academy kids who are going to frolic in some fields until it's time to go home and eat the dinner their parents had prepared. After all, none of them have handbands visible so they can't possibly be proud Shinobi.

She leads them off the beaten path, through the forest for so long they only arrive when the sun is starting to dip below the horizon.

( _She doesn't remember being brought here, but Sakura remembers the trip home with a startling burst of clarity._ )

They stand in front of what looks to be a large grate in the forest floor, the steel rusted and flaking. It's been a long time since Sakura's been here, and as she stares down at the entrance to her own personal Hell-

( _"-kura? Sakura? You with me?" There's an ANBU in front of the small child, waving a hand in front of the girl's glassy eyes, there's still no response._

_"I'm not surprised," a man says quietly, adjusting his mask ever so slightly. "For something like this to happen to someone so young, I doubt she'll even be cleared to go home right away." He looked to the right, where one of their youngest members - Rabbit, was heaving in the bushes._

_That wasn't surprising either, the boy hadn't seen anything as awful as this before, he was even feeling a bit queasy. Normal people tended to draw the line at mutilated children after all. All of them had taken a moment or two away from the group to puke or cry or do whatever it was they did when they needed a moment to cope with the worlds horrors hanging over their heads, though they were the best of the best they rarely dealt with a situation as delicate as this._

_Besides, their orders were less than tasteful. Of fifty-eight survivors, only two were going to be l-_ )

"-kura?" Naruto is waving a hand in front of her face, and she blinks at the sickening sense of deja vu that washes down her spine.

"Aa," Sakura murmurs, gently pushing the blond's hand away from her. "I was just remembering...will you help?" She says, crouching down to grab one of the four bar handles that are on each side of the grate. There's no hesitation with either boy as they crouch down to grab a handle, and together the three of them haul the slab of steel upward, dragging it with their combined force away from the opening. It takes a moment or two, but eventually they manage, leaving deep grooves in the forest floor from where they'd dug their heels in and pushed.

Sakura wipes sweat from her brow and glances at the setting sun, eyes glowing an eerie shade of green as the light reflects onto her face. She climbs down the ladder that leads deep underground to the facility without a moment's hesitation, forcing her mind to focus on each step down instead of the approaching Hell she had been held a physical prisoner of for over a year, and a mental prisoner ever since.

Naruto and Sasuke follow without hesitating, and they never once question her as they go deeper and deeper, until the light from above is barely visible and their eyes have adjusted to the dim darkness that surrounds them. Naruto keeps up a constant stream of chatter, talking about anything and everything that comes to mind as he goes, and for once his teammates are thankful, his bright conversational skills enough to distract them from where they're going, but not enough so to distinct from the putrid odor of decay that was growing heavy in the air, a sickly sweet smell that clung to their clothes and eventually made Naruto stop talking and gag.

"If you puke on me I will kill you, Naruto." Sasuke chokes out between mouthfuls of air, but the smell is so strong he can taste it, and that's more horrifying than anything else. _Sakura had been here for over a year when she was four? Why the hell did it still smell like this? Why-_

The girl in question finally reached the bottom, and the other two climbed down shortly after her. With a shaking hand, Sakura withdrew three glow sticks from her pouch, though Sasuke couldn't see more than her silhouette in the darkness, the distinct _CRACK_! that echoed around them as she popped all three sticks was enough to make Naruto start violently, but he seems to relax as a dim red light fills the space around them. At his teammate's inquisitive looks, the boy shrugs.

"Sounds a lot like how a bone does when it breaks." He offered quietly and watched as Sasuke's face twists and Sakura's eyes glow brighter. A possessive kind of rage seems to fill their stances.

"Which vendor?" Sasuke asks after a moment of trying to compose himself and then deciding to _Hell_ with that. He was tired of trying to pretend to be good for the sake of others if they wouldn't pretend either, then none of them had to pretend anymore when they were together. Let this anger eat him alive, let it steal his breathe and reform him.

Let him burn, so he could burn this whole fucking village to the _ground_.

* * *

* * *

Naruto shifts uncomfortably as he takes one of the offered glow sticks, blue eyes looking around the long cavern hallway they stood in instead of at his seething teammates.

"Vendors," He says after a long moment, the soft correction enough to send Sasuke into a whole new tizzy of rage.

The Uchiha sputtered incoherently in a way that would have been funny in any other situation, and if his coal black eyes are tinted with red no one says anything.

"We'll deal with them next," Sakura says gently, touching both of the boys shoulders and yes despite her kind words there's bloodlust seeping into the air around them, dragging into their lungs with that disgusting sweet smell and- both of the boys seem to relax at her words, rage dimming slightly.

Together, shoulders brushing, the trio goes further down the hallway.

* * *

Sakura hasn't felt anger like this before, sure she knows anger, but when Naruto admits to multiple vendors within the village breaking his bones she feels the rage settle into her rib cage. These were people she _knew_ , people she'd shopped from before, who had handled her like she was made of glass after she'd been returned to her family, but then turned around and hurt another child.

It was sickening, and Sakura realized quietly that she was taking in the anger for her teammates. Rage for Naruto a roaring inferno in her lungs, fury for Sasuke a blizzard in her stomach, her own anger simmering and settling in the hollow spaces between her breastbone.

The three of them stayed close as they traveled miles underground, and though they didn't really know how long it took, they could tell they were getting closer because the smell was unbearable, evidence of the underground laboratory being neglected for so long clear with how the hall slowly became submerged in murky rainwater that the trio sloshed through.

Sasuke had released Naruto's hand in order to tug the high collar of his shirt to cover his nose, and Naruto used his free arm to press the sleeve of his jacket over his face to try and block out the sickening scent. Sakura, as much as she hated herself for it, wasn't quite brave enough to let go of either of their hands, so she held on and dragged in air through clenched.

When they finally arrived at the main lab the water was up to their shins, tinted green from having sat for so long. The room was rounded with three doors leading into different directions. Filing cabinets lined the carved stone walls, some half open and empty, others shut and locked. They stand in front of the three doors, three different paths for them to take and Sakura is sure the boys will recommend they split up to save ti-

"Together," Sasuke says suddenly, surprising Naruto and Sakura. "Let's stay together." He says, voice slightly muffled by his shirt.

In the end, it's Naruto that tugs them to the far right door, leading Sakura along who in turn pulled Sasuke with her. It took some maneuvering, but the three of them managed to pry open the rusted door. There was no hallway, the door just led into a large room full of roof high shelving, rotting books, and vials of various sizes holding questionable liquids. In the center of the room was a large wooden table that was half broken, wood splintering up and discolored, a single large scroll sat leaning atop the table, dangerously close to falling into the water, the Uchiha insignia on it.

Here, they split, Sasuke made a beeline for the scroll, eyes wide in horrified recognition. Naruto was much more entrapped by the jars and vials that lined the shelving around them, thus the blond went to go ( _literally_ ) poke at the glass beakers. Sakura headed towards the old tomes, a bookworm at heart, even if it's this place she can't resist the offered knowledge.

Sakura zones out here, blocking out the boys as she trails her fingers along with the many tomes and scrolls that line the walls, she suddenly wishes she'd brought a bag with her. It was odd really, how none of the books were really the same, randomly thrown upon shelves as if there was no organization in mind- but then she catches on.

They weren't arranged alphabetical, rather by topic. There were several scrolls titled with the kanji for Medical and Immortal which was odd in of itself, but the fact that there was a scroll thrown into the Immortal section labeled Jashinism piped her interest. Reading the word was like- like a warm embrace, gentle fingers combing through her hair, in the back of her mind she could just barely hear an unfamiliar hymn resounding, it was chanting in words she couldn't understand and- Sakura shoved the scroll into her pocket before she really understood why.

There were other interesting books on the shelves. She ending up snagging 3 scrolls labeled Medical Studies I, II, and III respectively and stuffing them into her pockets, which were bulging at this point, and then she impulsively snagged a fat looking tome that was free of water damage and labeled Uzushiogakure which was...odd, she couldn't remember ever learning anything about that in the Academy. She tucked that book under her arm, snagged a smaller book labeled Bingo - Per Shinobi and shoved it into one of her vest pockets.

Her hand was inching towards a scroll labeled Summons Study and Theory when Naruto yelled, voice filled with utter disgust-

"Why the _fuck_ is there _eyes_ in this jar!?" There was a pause as Sakura's fingers curled around the scroll even as her head whipped around to look at Naruto, eyes wide as Sasuke scrambled toward the boy, the scroll he'd been studying tucked firmly under one arm.

When the boys started arguing louder Sakura eyed a scroll labeled Engineering Basics but pulls away from the shelves, the summons scroll shoved into another bulging pocket as she goes to see what has the boys in such a fit. It turns out, there are eyes in the jar that seems to be filled with a questionable clear liquid.

The glass jars are covered in seals, but Sakura isn't really sure what the seals do, so she's not entirely sure if it's safe to touch, which is why she keeps swatting the boy's hands. All of the irises of the eyes are the same shade of black coal as Sasuke's, and her stomach sinks uncomfortably.

"We should-" Sakura cut off Sasuke with a sharp "No!" That caused the Uchiha to flinch guiltily. There's a long pause as the three of them shift uncomfortably, and then Naruto nudges them both with her shoulders.

"I think…you said he did experiments right?" The blond asks gently, eyes darting from Sakura to Sasuke to the jars rapidly. Not all of the containers have eyes in them, others have what look to be flaps of skin or chunks of what appears to be wood, one even looks like it has a finger floating around, but the seal appears to be damaged on that particular container, which has resulted in the finger looking like a blotted mass of rotting flesh rather than an actual finger.

"I think this is what he used," Naruto whispers, but his soft voice echoes in the room and the trio turn as one to look at the vast space, to take in the rows upon rows of bookshelves, full of so much…

"Potential." Whispers Sasuke.

"Resources." Murmurs Sakura.

"Advantages." Says Naruto.

( _They leave the room with a half baked idea in mind, a plan not fully formed but slowing knitting together - they need something to tip the scale in their favor, and they may have just found it._ )

* * *

* * *

The next room doesn't turn out as fruitful as the last.

Sasuke leads the group this time, after both the boys and taken some of the scrolls Sakura had been weighed down with, the three of them stepped out of the room and shoved the door shut before prying open the middle one and squeezing through, the trio came upon a hallway with several doors lining the walls-

( _Sakura was three and tiny but smart, so she knew to count the steps from when they entered the hallway to when they found the door that belonged to her, it was always the same room-_ )

Her feet move without her really being aware, green eyes hollow as she slowly moves forward, the boys trailing behind with uncertainty shadowing every step. They pass by three doors before Sakura numbly dropped their hands and pushed open the last door. A metal table, stained in old, flacking, brown blood-

( _"-kura? Sakura-chan, are you with me?" The man leaning over her ran gentle fingers through the girl's pink hair, his voice so soft and welcoming. It would have been enough to lull her to sleep if his other hand hadn't cut her open and forced its way through the too small incision until his entire hand was inside of her, fingertips brushing against her rib cage, easing between bone to dig into the fleshy muscle of her lung._

 _"Sakura-chan, pay attention now, I'm still teaching you about the nerves inside your body." He tells her, and she can feel_ how _her nerves are alight with agony, jumping at every jolt of pain beneath her skin-_ )

Her own hand reaches toward her side absentmindedly, grasping and holding and tugging and- she can't breathe. The wound oh the wound she can still feel it now even if it's closed, she can still feel him there, his stifling presence, still remember the lessons he'd drilled into her despite the pain that had ripped across her body and could still remember-

( _"You've got such pretty hair, Sakura-chan," Kabuto was leaning over her, his hand pressed to the wound on her side, easing along her skin to close. "I wonder if Orochimaru-sama would allow me to keep you," The boy murmurs once he's finished, running a hand through her hair, leaving a streak of crimson within her pink locks._ )

Sakura flinches away from Sasuke when he reaches for her, and then her knees give out. The boys react in proper horror as the girl crashes into the murky water, hyperventilating and clawing at her arms so hard she leaves deep grooves. They hovered uncertainty around her, trying to remain calm as their third man broke down. In the end, the two boys ended up on their knees in the water as well, Sasuke prying away Sakura's hands while Naruto wrapped his arms around the shaking girl, holding her tight and close.

They aren't sure how long it takes, but eventually, Sakura's breathing evens out, pressed between the boys who don't ask questions when she finally stands, who only keep a firm hold on each of her hands.

( _They don't have to ask to know the memories in this room as anything but fond, that this is her Hell._ )

* * *

* * *

What lies behind the last door is objectively the worst thing they've encountered thus far, and this time Sakura isn't the only one that breaks down.

The putrid smell they'd been able to ignore earlier was hanging heavy in the air behind the third and final door, and Sakura knew what they'd find here with a dread that enveloped her entire being. She hadn't been expecting the seals that lined the walls, placed strategically five feet within each other over each door and humming with chakra. The trio froze, the implications this supplied more than a little horrifying.

"Sasuke, what kinda seals-" The Uchiha cut off Naruto, voice harsh and ragged as his shoulders trembled. "Preservation, like at the compound but...altered." The boy drew in a sharp breath through clenched teeth before continuing. "There's a...a kind of time-lapse on them, so the preservation doesn't last so long as the seals are sustained, but instead within the set timeframe." Naruto and Sakura had idly followed Sasuke as he observed one of the seals, poking at it with his own chakra and humming.

"It's almost out of chakra, which means whatever's being preserved is probably starting to…" He turned sharply to face forward, eyes set on the long hallway and the heavy steel doors that lined the walls. "To decay…" He choked out, voice rough.

"These are the cells," Sakura says, rage building upwards as the implications set in but- she has to see it for herself, she has to- she starts forward, steps starting slow before becoming frantic as she bypasses five doors before letting go of Naruto and Sasuke and shoving open the sixth door with unnecessary force.

The door scraps loudly against the floor, the disgusting water rushing forward to reach the room that had been previously unreachable just as the door bangs against the wall loudly, the sound echoing down the hallway and in her head as she stares in furious horror at the sight that lays before her, Naruto and Sasuke jolting to a stop just behind her.

There's a pause as the smell sweeps over them first, so much worse than it had been before, sickeningly sweet. Sasuke gags at the same time as Naruto turns around to vomit violently behind them into the water that sloshes against their ankles.

A small body lays in the cell, illuminated by only the soft red light from their glow sticks, skin awash with unnatural shades of purple, blue and green over ashen grey, blistered and bloated, some areas even burst open and spewing a variety of fluids. Flies buzzed incessantly around the room; their sound impossibly loud in her ears. The blood that had once been pooled beneath the body merged with the water, too clotted and old to truly mix, and so it bopped with every ripple, expanding outward as the three of them scramble away from the horrid concoction desperately.

The body- no, the corpse was that of a child, Sakura thinks. She can't tell if it had eyes because they'd sunken into its skull but - it's shirt was ruined, yes, but it wasn't ruined enough to cover the Uchiha clan insignia that shone like a beacon in the darkness.

Sasuke vomited next.

There are, perhaps, no real words that can be used when one finds themselves in a situation such as this. If someone were to ask Naruto to describe how he felt in those horror-filled moments, the blond would say _disgusted_ and then, after a pause, he'd whisper _sad_. No one deserved to die like this, because it had been a slow death, they'd figured. The seals were meant to preserve in every sense of the word, the children in the cells didn't just starve to death, they starved and suffered and did it all _alone_ and _no one deserves to be alone_. The haunted look in Naruto's eyes never really leaves.

If someone were to ask Sasuke how he felt after the experience, the boy would first think _petrified_ before _bitter_ would slip and fall from his lips, a cascading burst of truth that would only bring destruction. _These were his clan seals_ but altered and even worse than that, _some of the children within the cells were his clansmen, I knew him, we played together, that was my third cousin._ Sasuke isn't angry, really, this just stacks with his preexisting rage, like adding gasoline to a wildfire.

The Uchiha breathes bitterness with a grimace as his lungs expand, and when he swallows the acidic taste of vomit sticks to the back of his throat. The haunted look in Sasuke's eyes has always been there, but his eyes shine bright crimson as he looks at the corpse, one tome spinning in each eye.

No one would dare ask Sakura how she felt about the situation. What right did they have? _No, what right did **she** have?_ The smell of death is something that stays long after the body breaks down and decomposes into nothingness, it lingers and clings and _corrupts_. It's likely they'll have to burn their clothes after this. The memory of death is worse than the scent. _It should have been her, what if it had been her, she should have been in these cells too._ The thoughts are all consuming and-

_so why, why w̴h̵y̴d̸i̸d̴t̸̲̩͐â̸̘͌̏k̵̳̺̈́͐͘ȩ̷͎̣̊h̸̨̠̄͝ͅě̵͈ȓ̶̥̈́o̷̩̘̥͑̽̌u̴̫͊t̶̮̠̄͆̍w̸̨͕̬̦̪̹͖̫̩͉̯̯͇̟̠͚̉͐͆̂̒̚͝ͅh̶̛͎͎͖̪̦̻͈̙̅̿̄y̴̢̩̳̳͆͑͒w̶̨̡̙̠̼̙̩̤̦̼̗͈͑̑͑͆̐̄̌̃͠ớ̶̝̙̖̟̻͈͚̪̞̌̈́̂̈́͗̇̓͆̌͜͜͝ù̷̧̨̬̫̯͓͙́͗̾̂̿̊̊̈́͜͜͝ͅl̸͔͚̲̤̝͕̓̂̅͛̂̚ḑ̶̨̤͔͉̜̜̖̺̱̭̼̯̣̜͈̺͛ẗ̶̛͔̮̖͍́͌͗̀͝ḣ̸͔̲͉̓͑̔̍̋̎̇̐̏̒̾̌̔̕͝͝é̷̢̧̧̩̖̭̲̱͚̲̳͂̌̎͂̌̉̆͌̐̆͠͠͝y̴̛̛̫̠͎̪̰̟̰͌̈̉͐̚ṡ̵̬͓͙̘̦̪̦̞̺̫̥̉͑̾̀̉̂̇̈́̚ͅa̴͈̩̪̦̠̤͆̑̿̈̿̎͆̇͐̕̚̕̕͝v̷͉̪̐ẹ̶̢̡̼͎͍̹̞̞͕̪͔̯̗̻̗̖̓͋̓͆ḩ̶͓̥̦͎͓̙̟͈̭̪͕̜̪͗͋̃̈̈́͛̌̉̌̓́̂̔̅ḛ̴̞̦͇̜̻̜̥̝̈́̌̌̏̕ͅr̵̨̮̤̟̰͈̦̖̪̝̍̽́́̈́̀̂͝a̸̡̢̫̼̱̺͙͔͑̐̔́̕̚ͅn̴̡͈̻̝̥̣̻̹̩͚̣̥̗̰̝̈́͒̀̎̂̑̈́͌̅́́d̶͚̣͙̬̘̘͖̮̬̣̞͖̻͋̚͜n̷̛̛͉͙̰͚̗͍͕̣̮͆̀̃́̀̽̽́̽̐̽̆͗̕͝͠ơ̷̡̡̛̛̰̫̦͔͇̣̮̖͚̝͑̆́̒̏͐ţ̸̛͇͕͓̩̂͐͂͌̉̒̎̾͗̂͌̕͜͠͝t̵͚͖̤͓̟̲͈̮̤̳̣̆́̀͂̈̈͘h̵̡̨̨̢͕̝̫̫͉̗̼̰̘͎͙̰̪͔̄̇̈́͛̈́̒̿̏͌̄̀̌͝e̷̡̖͙̳̞̰̤̲͖̺̹̰̝̬̦͂̈́̐̽͆̋̽m̸̧͔̘̝͍̘̝̪̳̲̈́͌̈̏́̍̕!_

_Confused_. She'd whisper, and then the facts would click into place. The seals hadn't been there when _she'd_ been there. They'd been a new addition that hadn't come from _Orochimaru_ but rather, _the village_. The village had left innocent children to _die_ a slow death in dark cells, alone and scared and hurt. They'd abandoned them, discarded them because they couldn't be deemed _useful_. They were dead, and she wasn't. _w̶̡̙̱̼̙̿̿̅̕ḧ̴͈̣̟̻̞́̆͘̚y̴̛̯͌h̸̟̘̰͒̔̃ĕ̸͙̩̻̙͕̍̽̃͊ṛ̵̡̞͚̒̀͑w̸̻̜̓͆̏̊H̵̪̭̟͗͊Ÿ̷̟͚̮̣̟́̑W̷͉̦̏̇̍̊͝H̴̘͛̓̃Y̵̹͍̅̾̈́͠Ẃ̶̨̺̱͝H̶̳̱̿̋Y̶̺͇͔͎̺̓͐̀͒͘Ẅ̶̫̜̫͉̞́͝H̷͍̉͗̉Y̷̝͆_ She'd been deemed a useful _tool_ meanwhile these children's families still cried for them, still hoped against hope that they'd come home, but they'd been left to rot underground. Her head is a mess of echoing bellows and screams, and her eyes aren't just haunted, they're hollow and filled with fire.

Perhaps, Sakura could once have believed there was hope for the Hokage and his council, but now, if someone were to ask her how she'd felt - all they'd have to do was look into the firm set of her shoulders, the steel in her eyes. Everything screams _furious_ and she'd look at them, and snarl _unforgiving_.

(And everything was already _changed_ , a team of lost souls had found a home in one another but this, this changes _everything_.

 _This is the first step to war._ )

.

.

.

tsuzuku 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay! So...sorry? It wasn't supposed to even go this far but bing bang boom one thing leads to another and here we are! Like...4,000 words later...
> 
> Song for this chapter - Sam Tinnesz "Man Or A Monster" (feat. Zayde Wolf)
> 
> Anyway, this wasn't me just throwing around dead bodies for the hell of it. Before this happened in the story, the three of them had suffered through their own kind of 'Hell' alone, now they are seeing the horrors that *someone* is responsible for in the Village, and this solidifies their unified goal to knock everyone who thinks it's okay to just make people suffer and kill them without reason down a few pegs. You probably also noticed that Sasuke unlocked his Sharingan from the sight. To me, it was weird that it didn't unlock when he saw his *parents dead* because...it's literally activated by like, high-stress situations etc, and really there's nothing more stressful than seeing ya parents dead & knowing your big bro was the one that made them get got. 
> 
> In other news, do to popular vote (and my own weakness) this will no longer just be 6 chapters! I've officially planned out arcs for the story now and am excited for how it's headed. I'll still aim for an update every week, or more so if I can swing it. This chapter took a long time to write because I did some pretty detailed research on dead bodies and shit. 
> 
> On that note, let me explain the seals I came up with for this concept. Basically, the Uchiha were decent at sealing and shit, and Orochimaru piggybacked off of them, and so did *someone else*. Hence the Uchiha scroll left behind in the archive room. The seals in the prison section were designed to preserve but only at a certain rate, and on a timer of sorts. So basically the stronger the amount of chakra in the seal, the better the preservation is, but the weaker the seal the weaker the preservation. The bodies are at a stage a normal dead body would be at anywhere from 3 weeks to a month, and there's maybe a year left of usage on the scrolls. If they'd gone down say, two years *later* they probably wouldn't have seen such a horrific sight, but as it stands the trio saw a dead body at it's literal worst phase. 
> 
> Next up! Bell test, a small peak at Kakashi's role with the group, and a decision is made by Team 7 that's less serious than any they'd made before but still a handful! 
> 
> Questions: What's your favorite Naruto!Headcanon? I'm looking for more things to incorporate into the storyline, mine is anything to do with Uzushiogakure, which is why I planned a whole arc for that!

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by a discord server I'm in. It was originally just gonna be a Deadpool!Sakura fucking around, but then Team 7 stole my plot and ran away with it while rubbing their grubby little hands all over it. Somehow we ended up here instead. There will be six chapters total, and by the end of this, you may hate me. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed! Please tell me if you did, it's the best inspiration to write more!!


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